Armello dev slashes over half of its staff

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger

Armello developer League of Geeks has slashed over half its staff after rising operation costs, weakening AUD, and poor early access sales have taken a toll on it. The studio was working on a full release of Jumplight Odyssey, which has since been put on ice for now.

The studio announced the disheartening news on Twitter, explaining that “unprecedented withdrawal of funding opportunities” have led to 31 people axed from the company. While Jumplight Odyssey has been affected, its other release, Solium Infernum, hasn’t been affected.

Affected staff will be provided with a qualified therapist and support locating a new job. Meanwhile, the on-ice project will receive all profits from the coming year. This all comes after the studio was supposedly in talks to nab profits that would float it through 2028, but obviously it fell through. The studio heads have since taken responsibility for the situation.

“This is our fault. At the end of the day, we’re the directors of this business. It’s our responsibility to ensure that our products and our team are protected. It’s not lost on us that we’ve landed them in this situation and that it was our responsibility to avoid this, no matter what kind of boogeyman we could point to.”

Editor-in-Chief

Gabe has been a gamer since he was young, playing games like Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, Guitar Hero, and whatever looked cool on GameFly. Ever since 2018, he's been infatuated with the inner workings of the gaming and entertainment industries, covering a wide range of topics from video games to TV and film. Starting as a contributor for PSX Extreme, he's worked his way up to its Managing Editor. Using what's he learned over the years, he founded Smash Jump to remind everyone to smash jump.